SAWTI Poetry Prize 2019 celebrates its debut winners

By +Caroline Anande Uliwa

Facilitator Nancy Lazaro (in focus) during
workshops held prior to the deadline for SAWTI poetry prize 2019

Belonging in the third world you can be oblivious to the nuances of that detriment. As the squeezed potholed streets are our home, the varying tones of the street hawker are our songs, the chorus of scolds from the teacher of 80+ students make of our routines; for us it’s not a third world, just our world.

This introspection into belonging was thoroughly mused on by a project called SAWTI. It is founded and programmed by Dutch born native Somalian Sumia Jaama. SAWTI took off after receiving a grant from the British Council under its program ‘New Art, New Audiences’ open call for 18-35 year old artists, art organisations and or art collectives.

Poetry workshop participants in the workshop
organised by SAWTI in Dar es Salaam earlier this year

This project ran a poetry prize since July this year titled SAWTI Poetry Prize calling for three poems each in Kiswahili, English or Arabic; from applicants hailing from East Africa and or East Africans of the Diaspora living in the U.K. The results were announced earlier this month, here Tanzanian native & citizen Ngollo Mlengeya scooped the Kiswahili poetry prize, Alycia Pirmohamed scooped the English poetry prize (she was raised in Canada but her parents have roots in Tanzania, she is now studying in the U.K). Basheer Abusan is the gentleman who took the Arabic poetry prize he is a native and citizen of Sudan.

Alycia Pirmohamed English Poet winner for SAWTI poetry prize 2019

“We name our bodies / anything that means to gather / flock into belonging

…/ we stumble into our blood / wild animals yoking together” -an excerpt from Alycia Pirmohamed’s winning poem titled ‘Self-Portrait as a lost language’.

The theme which the applicants had to succumb to in this poetry prize looked at ‘poetry as preservation’. Alycia is currently a doctoral candidate at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, where she is studying figurative homelands in poetry written by second-generation immigrant writers.

Her studies gave her a leg up in this competition as one can see poetry as preservation is well lived in her field of study. “The poems I look at are so personal and intimate, and I appreciate each experience of reading them, of experiencing the uniqueness of their spirituality. Sometimes that experience is joyous and thriving, and other times it might be more political, more questioning, complex and difficult. In all cases, these poems are powerful and really show how poetry works as preservation and resilience. “Alycia affirms.

Aspiring poets in Zanzibar posing after a workshop organised
by SAWTI prior to the deadline for the poetry prize in August this year

‘Sauti ya utulivu ikanijia |Tulia, achilia, tulia achilia...|Naachilia majonzi ndani ya moyo wangu|Naachilia watu niliowafunga kifuani kwangu|Naachilia mitazamo ya akili yangu |Naachilia matarajio yangu| Natulia, Naachilia’ an excerpt from Ngollo Mlengeya’s winning poem titled ‘Bahari’. 

Ngollo Mlengeya the Kiswwahili poet winner
for SAWTI poetry prize 2019

From this artwork it’s fair to say what Ngollo illustrates as worthy of preservation for us East Africans is the introspective journey into surrender. “...I think for me this was to show that you have to know; what you can control and what you can’t. And the things you can’t it’s time to let go, I mean if they’re yours to come then they will, if they’re not then, you just have to let them go.”Ngollo shares the ethos behind her winning poem.

This lesson of letting go is one Sudanese Poet Basheer illuminates aptly in his entries to this prize “As you know for the past thirty years, the ruling political system in our country has adopted ideological attitudes that significantly reduced our recognition as a people of Africa...My generation, we managed to get rid of that with a peaceful popular revolution, so most of my poems come with this spirit and the longing for peace, freedom and justice.

Basheer Abusan the Arabic poet winner of the
SAWTI Poetry Prize 2019

The poem I handed in ‘Mosdar’ comes from a popular Sudanese word...associated with poetry by/of itinerant shepherds and people living outside the cities. Here I monitor the journey of our loss in Sudan and our social fluctuations...My final poem handed in the prize ‘For a sad singer’ questions identity through folklore airing concerns of the future, while talking about our revolution and its future.” Basheer answers on what role he sees his poetry playing in preserving the memories, the lives of his people.

SAWTI in galvanising applicants for its debut poetry prize held workshops prior to the deadline of entries in various cities in East Africa and the U.K. Among them were Dar es Salaam, Zanzibar, Khartoum & London. 

The facilitators included award winning poet Sumia Jaama who is the winner of FourHubs’ 2018 Poetry Prize, a Barbican Young Poet Alumni and a recent graduate of the Creative Writing and Education MA at Goldsmith.

Another facilitator was Amaal Said she is a Danish-born Somali photographer, poet, based in London. Nancy Lazaro from Tanzania was another facilitator who ran the workshops in Dar es Salaam. She is a youth development advocate a 2014 Mandela Washington Fellow, (the Young African Leaders Initiative by President Barack Obama) a 2016 Global Citizen Youth Advocate.

Sumia had this to say of the journey in facilitating for these workshops and ultimately gaining the 513 poems the prize cornered in its debut year. “I was really impressed with the dialogues that came from the workshops and the number of entries we received. It served us to open the prize with more than one language; we saw how these three languages influence each other while occupying different regions. How that in itself opens the scope of how East Africans identify. 

The politics of what does a ‘national’ language mean and who does it serve was also great to uncover? This has prompted us to think in future iterations of the prize we can open submissions in even more languages.”

Workshop participants in the workshop held by SAWTI in Zanzibar

The prize was judged by three experts for each language namely Safia Elhillo-English, Neema Komba-Kiswahili and Marwa Babiker-Arabic. You can learn more of their credentials here as well see the full bio’s of the winners and read their winning poems in full. https://sawti.co.uk/poetry-prize/

Given the judges stellar credentials one still will agree that one judge per language for poetry isn’t ideal, when asked to comment on the same. Sumia responded “. I agree that having more judges per language would have served the applicants better, however as it was the first year of the prize and we wanted to serve more than one language, it meant that we were only able to budget for one judge per prize... I think the judges did an excellent job despite this, particularly as detailed reports were submitted on how the selection was made, having a shortlist also helped with that.”

All the winners have received 500 GBP as a prize and they will be published in a Zine facilitated by the project come early next year. When asking them how they felt to win, they were all very humbled and inspired to see their craft accepted as a valid career.

This article was first published in The East African Newspaper with this link

Poetry as Preservation SAWTI clocks its winners

Chambuzi ya Kitabu 'Mmeza Fupa' by Ali Hilal Ali

By +Caroline Anande Uliwa

It’s a gift to be able to knit words in an intricate pattern allowing one to savor mundane details as they’re rendered cinematic. “Nakaa najiuliza, wapi yetoka asili Kama kila la kukwaza, huitwa la uswahili Dhana inaambukiza, isemwapo kwa kejeli Ni nini uswahili?” an excerpt poem in the novel Meza Fupa by Zanzibarian author Ali Hilal Ali, 30.

This literary work won ‘Best Novel’ in the Mabati-Cornell Kiswahli Literature prize of 2017. Then Meza Fupa was but a manuscript where earlier this year, it got published and was released by Mkuki na Nyota publishers in Tanzania. Stumbling onto the book occurred late last month when Mr Hilal Ali was giving a talk in his promotion of the book at a book bazaar, inside Soma’s book café in Dar es Salaam.

Meza Fupa is a rich debut novel featuring leading characters Bi Msiri & Miftaha. Bi Msiri is well past the elderly age, she reckons she’s nearing her grave. Thus in her bucket list is a plan to impart her life’s lessons to the young. It’s this wish that has her bumping into Miftaha.

Miftaha has a tumultuous relationship with his father Kitwana, who divorced his mom when he was still a baby, now all grown. Miftaha works as a teacher for a local secondary school much to his father’s indignation. Kitwana had given him an education that ensured his tertiary was had at a notable university in the West. So when Miftah comes home and fails to follow in his father’s footsteps, by becoming a government official; Kitwana is disappointed and many a times disowns his son.

See Miftaha had more revolutionary ideas in serving the people; ideas that are echoed to bear the theme of this novel. Which looks at the ‘social-political patriotic consciousness’ of our times in the region. “Ya nini kuingiana maungoni kisa utashi! Kisa mirengo. Kisa hamwendi upande mmoja?...Sisi tunajikweza kisa huyu katokea eneo fulani na huyu eneo fulani. Huyu anastahiki na huyu hastahiki. Sivyo hivyo, waungwana. Muungwana hafedheheki. Sisi tunajikweza na kuzivunja heshima wenyewe kisha huona fakhari kuitwa waheshimiwa.” A speech delivered by the central character Bi Msiri in the novel ‘Meza Fupa’ by Ali Hilal Ali.

Meza Fupa can be deemed an apt anthropological visage of the isles in East Africa, this through the dazzling fauna of words that Mr Hilal chooses. There’s lush poetry and sporadic spiels into dream worlds, revealing cultural steeped folklores that litter this novel. At the same time the book is a social critique of our East African democracies. “Ni nani anayelinda? Nani anayelindwa. Au wibwengo wang’oa mihogo mashambani?...Wanaowabaka mabinti na wake za watu. Hawa ni nani? Ukiuliza, unaambiwa hakuna taarifa hizo. Hawa kamwe hawatuhusu na hatuwajui. Ni watu wasiojulikana.” Excerpt from ‘Meza Fupa’.

A word of caution to the author in future with regards to the balance between plot & delivery, the plot in this novel isn’t as gripping as should be. The descriptions times stretch too long, leaving the reader scrambling to connect with the flow of the story. Also in painting the past of some 190 years ago, the novel could have do with more accuracy. It fairs in 1839 in East African islands third tier government officials had plenty of cars!

Still it was refreshing to read a novel by an African man which placed women at the center of the story with honor. However more research can be done to depict the nuances of the female psyche. “Chumba hunilemea peke yangu. Matakwa ya mabwana wakubwa, kunyume na ridhaa yangu yakatimia kwa taabu na papatu…Siri na aibu na ukakamavu wa kijasiri. Siku nyerngine nilitamani  nife kwa matendo nilifyofanyiwa pasi na ridhaa yangu.” In this excerpt from ‘Meza Fupa’. 

Is a rife example of this lack of insight, the incident shares the experience of continuous rape times by more than one man that Bi Msiri endures. Note how the description is short made to make us feel comfortable in its conservative lingo. Yet a woman can ask is there anything conservative about continuous rape? In reading these parts you may be left wanting in that the psychology of rape wasn’t well depicted.

That said this is a mean feat by this author and I recommend you get your copy, for the man’s dance with words. Tells me having his novel is an investment for the future as he’s geared to be one of the great literary minds of our times, if he continues on this path. To think he studied finance in his tertiary education! You can get your copy for only 18,000/- at TPH Bookstore in Dar, or place your order here Mkuki na Nyota Publishers

This article was first published in the DailyNews with this link Rich Debut Novel-Mmeza Fupa by Ali Hilal Ali

'Kaisari tumempa yake na yetu anaipora'-Vitali Maembe

By +Caroline Anande Uliwa

Vitali Maembe in his hometown Bagamoyo, captured a few moments
after I interviewed him

With each note the invitation to offload, to return to bliss has your mind on awkward mistrust as your feet quickly catch on. Making rhythmic footprints as the spell continues to allow you to belong. Such was the experience of listening to the music of Vitali Maembe, recently in concert at Bagamoyo.

Vitali Maembe captured with my phone :)
while performing at this year's Ongala Music
Festival in Bagamoyo

On seeing him perform I got inspired to seek him out and learn more; for he is of that unique breed the kind that walks towards fire when others are running from it. Despite being arrested and detained several times (he has never been charged) in his career of over two decades. Vitali has not stopped speaking truth to power in his music “I am not a soldier, I am not a rebel just a fighter, I fight alone with my music to save my people” lyrics from Vitali’s song ‘NchiYangu (Kinoo)’.

Indeed his lyrics which call out corruption, asking leaders to account for the social political ills in society. Have landed Vitali on uncomfortable territory with the authorities; stints like the case when he performed in the region of Kagera back in 2012. Which saw him being kicked off stage by the police where he was then ordered to leave the region within 12 hrs have been common place in his career. “As I advertise my shows before hand, they would know where and when to come, many times in the big cities. I’ll be accosted by the police after the show, otherwise like in Kiteto in Manyara I get pulled off the stage during the show.”

On asking why then he is propelled to sing of socio economic or political issues, when they so obviously get him in trouble he replies. “First off you can’t run from politics…when I sing about youths business failing or the dispensary having no medicine or that road being horrible. I am not talking politics bare in mind our national anthem says ‘Wabariki viongozi wetu’. How can we bless our leaders if we don’t tell them the truth?”

In the course of our interview off hand Vitali in his kinship to music picks up his guitar and starts crooning. ‘Kaisari tumempa yake na yetu anaipora-We’ve given the Kaizer his, he steals ours too’.Vitali 43, is a native of the Pwani region ofTanzania, in his early twenties (early 2000’s) he trained at TaSuBa (Bagamoyo College of Arts) in fine art, traditional dance and music Vitali Maembe artwork 'Elimu'. Musically it is his skill with the guitar and relatable tongue in cheek lyrics that set him apart. His music while holding the possibility of African rhythmic beats maintains a lulling melody reminiscent of countrymusic, perhaps it’s in the ‘afro country’ genre.

To date Vitali Maembe has five albums to his belt including Bagamoyo 2004, Imbila 2007, Chanjo 2010, Liberation 2013, Vuma 2016 and his latest Kichaa Karudi 2018. He is an independent artist who gets support from donors here and there but mainly pushes his work by his own efforts. In this he faces challenges in gaining more support from music stakeholders like promoters who fear to attract hostility from authorities.

In his community Vitali is known for his generosity with his talents. Since his late teens he has been rounding youths at first from his own football club, while he was living in Dar es Salaam. Then when he moved to Bagamoyo the initiative now called ‘Jua Art Foundation’ took root with youths he rounded from the streets. Jua has taught dozens & dozens of artists providing them employable skills including his own son currently in secondary school; who plays the guitar much like his father.

Among the artists benefiting from this program include the Ze Spirits Band http://zespirits.com/about/, who have toured extensively in the region after being launched with the support of the British Council. Many other artists who have passed through ‘Jua Art Foundation’ are now with sustainable careers abroad like Amiri Matiga who works for Disney in the USA.

Vitali himself doesn’t prefer to work abroad for long; he loves his home despite that mainstream media in the country censors a lot of his music as authorities discourage the stations from playing the same. Though you can still hear few of his old singles like ‘sumu ya teja’ being played on radio. He recalls being quite disheartened last year when he tried to renew his art license from BASATA-Tanzania Art Council. They refused it to him citing the orders came from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, alleging he was mentally disturbed. When he asked to have the same in writing, todate he hasn’t received this document or his license. It’s this saga that inspired the title of his latest album ‘Kichaa Amerudi’ translating ‘the crazy one is back’.

However this hasn’t stopped Vitali’s efforts to speak his mind just March this year he held a concert called ‘Sikia Raisi’ translating ‘Listen President’. It packed the venue of TaSuBa in Bagamoyo, prior to the show he had written a letter to the President Vitali Maembe's letter to the President 2019. In this letter he congratulates the President on the good he has done as well he requests for his safety The letter reports that he has been beaten by police and denied medical help and is finding his patriotism put to the ultimate test.

A little prior to the show Vitali says he was called by a representative of the government and asked not to sing certain songs in his repertoire like ‘Walete’. Perhaps the letter did reach the President as since March this year Vitali hasn’t been harassed by the authorities.

Vitali is well respected by his peers indeed he is experienced and talented.

Music professionals from Norway were so awed by his style that he was invited to the country to teach for a year.“I met these music researchers from the University of Adger in Norway…they marveled at my music. Sometimes I play a few chords but also where I start to sing isn’t where many musicians choose to start. It’s like I am starting off…” Vitali shares.

Vitali has performed in several countries including Germany, Switzerland, Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, Norway, Sweden and Hungary. Recently in Oct last year he was called by the Sahrawi people of Western Sahara to perform in their efforts to get the UN’s assistance to help secure their independence. You can listen to some of Vitali’s music here Vitali Maembe Music on SoundClick or follow him on social media to learn more.

This article was first published in The EastAfrican Newspaper with this link https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/magazine/Singing-the-truth-can-be-dangerous/434746-5272342-6vm8dcz/index.html